M^. ^. ^4-i^^ 



^^- p^. >e 



KXPANSION 

The Hi^ttuy and Hcrcdily of our Rncc. 



SPEECH \, 

^ HOX. KEXRY KrOIBSON, 

OF T E N X E ri S E E , 

In tue House of Kepkesentatives, 

Tuesday, Februanj 6, 1000. 

Tlic House hcini? in Committoo of tho Whole House on the Ptnto of the 
Union, and having under con><ideratiou the bill (H. K. 7!U1) niakiiiK' apnro- 
priations tor the diplonuitic und consular service for the tliscal year ending 
June 3 J, i\m— 

Mr. GIBSON said: 

Mr. Chairman: I wish to take advantage of this opportnnitj' to 
discuss the (juestion of expansion from a national standpoint; to 
show the various exp:nisions in the historj- of our coiintry from 
the very beginning. It might be stated generally that we began 
as a people to expand from the moment that the feet of our ances- 
tors first landed xipon the shores of the Atlantic coast of North 
America, and from that day to this we have been extending the 
area of our possessions and our influence until they have reached 
their present extraordinary limits. 

Ordinarily the Louisiana acquisition is considered our first ex- 
pansion ; and it was our first expansion from what might be termed 
a national standpoint. But it was not our first expansion as a 
people. In 17r);3 the whole of the Mississippi \'alley. as well that 
on the west side of the river as that upon the east side, belonged 
to France. That vast domain reaching from the Allegheny Moun- 
tains on the east to tlie Rocky Mountains on the west was in the 
undisputed posses.sion of France. The territory now occupied by 
the States of Mississippi and Alabama was a part of the territory 
of France. What is now Tennessee and Kentucky and West 
Virginia was a j)art of the territory of France. Western Pennsyl- 
vania and all of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois. Michigan, and Wisconsin 
were all carved out of what once was a part of the territory of 
France. 

FHEM H POSSF.-iSIdNS IX NOUTII AMEHK A. 

As stated by Bancroft in his History of the United States, in 
17.5;i France owned twenty twenty-hfths of the whole of North 
America, Spain owned four twenty-fifths, and England owned 
only one twenty-fiftli. In IT-'iJi thearea of tht> original thirteen 
colonies was only :!.")M,000 square miles, not as large as the State of 
Texas when annexed: and they were inhabited hy only l.l(>r).0(X) 
white people, none of whom lived west of the AUeghenj- ^loun- 
tains. In ITo:; France owned the whole of that immon.'je area 
reaching from the Allegheny Mountains on tlie east to tlie Rocky 
4a» 1 



y.%ovco:-... 









2 

Mountains on the west, and no other nation dispnted her sover- 
eignty or her possession. But the spirit of expansion, the thirst 
of enterprise, and the love of adventure that have animated our 
race from the dawn of its history, and that first brought our an- 
cestors from the Baltic Sea to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, « 
then to the north of France, then from those regions to England, 
and then from England to America, where they laid the founda- 
tions of their final empire, were still inspiring the hearts, ener- 
gizing the intellects, and propelling the footsteps of our ancestors. 
To roam, to explore, to occupy, and to build was their nature. 
The Almighty had made them so. This decree He had written m 
their souls, and it was a part of their very life. 

Hitherto this new and vigorous and wonderful race had crossed 
seas and bays and oceans, but had never yet crossed mountams. 
The Alleghenies barred their way to the West. On the other side 
was the yet uifconquered red man. On the other side was the 
sovereignty of the great Kingdom of France. On the other side 
were boundless forests, unexplored wildernesses, unnavigated 
rivers, and unmeasured prairies. 

These formidable obstacles, obstacles that heretofore m the his- 
tory of the world had been sufficient to divide people from people, 
race from race, and nation from nation, were no obstacles at all 
to the descendants of those mighty adventurers that had breasted 
the tempests and buffeted the billows in order to lay the founda- 
tions of their future empire on the continent of North America. 

WASHINGTON THE FIRST AMERICAN LEADER OF EXPANSION. 

And so our ancestors began to cross the Allegheny Mountains. 
The French resisted, and who was chosen to overcome that resist- 
ance? It was George Washington. George Washington it was 
who led the first army of American expansion. George Washing- 
ton it was who fought the first battle in the first war of American 
expansion. And George Washington it was who won the first 
victory ever won in battle for American expansion. 

Then came on the great French and Indian war, which raged 
from 1754 to 1763, the Indians and the French on the one side and 
the British and the Americans on the other side; a war whose line 
of battle was a thousand miles, reaching from the Plains of Abra- 
ham in Upper Canada to Fort Loudon in what is now East Ten- 
nessee, a war waged by land and sea, a war waged by cannon and 
rifle, by tomahawk and scalping knife, a war whose zone of con- 
flict was illuminated by the blazing homes of hundreds of the 
inhabitants of the frontiers and made hideous by the warwhoops 
of painted savages and the fearful cracks of the deadly rifle. 

The people of the American colonies never looked backward. 
Looking backward is not one of the characteristics of our race. 
We have not only always looked forward, but have looked far 
forward. 

In June, 1754, the representatives of the American colonies met 
in convention at Albany, N. Y., and agreed to unite in making 
defense against the French and Indians, and in an effort to drive 
them out of the country west of the Allegheny Mountains. 

Mr. Chairman, that was a great day in American history, for 
then and there we began to be one people; and from that day down 
to the present, amid many trials, many discords, many vicissi- 
tudes, many perplexities, and many dangers, have continued to 
be one people. And hence it is I call this great war the first war 
of expansion ever entered on by the American people. 

4029 



3 

^ . orn FiiisT ciiiEAT WAU f>r kxi»ansiov. 

^i Tlio Ajiicrican pcoph*. as I have alroady stated, tlu-ii iminliored 

xjj l,l(i."),()(»il. Ihyant, in his liistory <>f tlio LTnitcd States, says that 

during tliis war th(3 Americans " lost nearly IJO.OOU of their young 
men," which was one out of every six men capable of bearing 
arms. And hundreds of wonun and children were massacred, 
the victims of the tomahawk and the scalping knife of the merci- 
less Indian savages. 

That, Mr. Chairman, was war. There were no faint hearts in 
that war. Tiirre was notliing said about the rights of tin- French 
and the Indians; notiiing said about "the coTisent of the gov- 
erned." No, yir. Chairman, nations do not move forward in that 
way. The children of Israel did not ask the "consent 'of the 
Canaaiiites to take possession of tiu'ir country. The army of 
Joshua did not ask the consent of anybody whin tliey crossed the 
Jordan and planted the ark of the covenant in the land of Canaan. 
The earth is the Lords, and the jieople of the earth arc but His 
tenants, and tenants at will, and lie gave us this land to be our 
inheritance. 

Tiiis great war between the Americans and British on the one 
side and the French and Indians on the other resulted in tlie over- 
throw of the armies of France, and the ten years' war was brought 
to a close by France siirrendering all the territory east of the 
Mississipjii and all of what is now Canada. By this surrender 
there was added to the domain of the American colonies .'):{(), OUO 
square miles, now occnpied by the great States of Mississippi, 
Alabama. Tennes.see. Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, 
Illinois. Michigan, and Wisconsin, and by the western part of 
Pennsylvania. 

This was our first great expansion— o^O, 000 square miles of the 
choicest laud to be found to-day anywhere beneath the bright sun. 

OltKOOX OUR SECO.Vn KXPANSIO.V. 

Exactly what territory was our second expansion may be a mat- 
ter of dispute. Captain Gray, in 179?. discovered the mouth of 
the Columbia River and sailed up that river and laid claim to the 
unknown country of Oregon in the name of the United States of 
America, and that has always been the foundation of our claim 
to the Oregon country— its discijvery by Captain Uray in 1792. 
Oregon is no part of our Louisiana i)urchase. and the map.^ of the 
United Stat'.'s, now issued by the Land Office, show ujion their 
face that Oregon was no part of the territory we i)urchased from 
France in lso:i. Our title to Oregon depends, first, upon the 
discovery of the mouth of the Columbia River by Ca])tain Gray in 
179"3. It is a law of nations that any country that discovers and 
occupies the mouth of a river thereby becomes cutitled to all the 
unoccupied territory watered b}' that river. It was on that doc- 
trine of international law that France laid claim to tiie whole val- 
ley of the Mississippi between the Rocky Mountains and the Alle- 
ghanies, and it was in accordance with this law th-.it we ba.sedour 
claim to all the territory watered by the Columbia River. 

The next ground of our title to Oregon was the treaty of 1819 
with Spain, whereby Spain, at the time .she ceded Floriila to the 
United States, (luitclaimed to the L'nited States all of that terri- 
tory north of what was then called Upper California, now occu- 
pied by the States of Oregon, Washington, and Idalio. And it 
is upon those two acts, one of discovery l\v Captain (iray and 
the other of (luitclaim by Spain, that we base our title to the 



territory of Oregon. And so Oregon is our second acquisition. 
The wliole territory aggregates 299,000 sciuare miles. 

LOUISIANA OUR THIRD EXPANSION. 

I now come to the Louisiana purchase, in 1803, whereby for a 
consideration of $15,000,000 we acquired from France that great 
territory reaching from Canada down to the Gulf of Mexico, and 
lying between the Mississippi River upon the east and the Rocky 
Mountains on the west, including Texas, for I will show in the 
course of my remarks to-day that Texas was a part of the Louisi- 
ana purchase, and that in 1819, when we acquired Florida, Presi- 
dent Monroe and the American Government turned over Texas 
and the Americans in it to Spain as part of the purchase price. 

Mr. Chairman, the average man who has not investigated this 
question often thinks, in consequence of confusion of names, that 
the Louisiana we acquired from France in 1803 is merely the pres- 
ent State of Louisiana; but that is far from the truth. The Louisi- 
ana that we purchased from France contained, leaving out Texas, 
883,000 square miles, and including Texas contained 1,260,000 
square miles. Out of the Louisiana purchase have been carved 
the States of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, 
North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, 
Kansas, and Colorado, and the Territory of Oklahoma and the 
Indian Territory, all carved out of this magnificent domain ac- 
quired by Thomas Jefferson in 1803, at the price of $15,000,000. 

Our next acquisition was Florida, which we purchased from 
Spain in 1819, the treaty being finally consummated in 1821, when 
the country was turned over to us; and for Florida we contracted 
to pay Spain $5,000,000, although as matter of fact the actual cost 
was $0,500,000. By that acquisition we acquired 70,000 square 
miles of territory. 

TEXAS OUR riFTH EXPANSION. 

Our fifth acquisition or expansion was Texas, which we acquired 
in 1845 by agreement between the then independent Republic of 
Texas and the United States of America, the agreement upon our 
part having been consummated by joint resolution i)assed by the 
two Houses of Congress. In that day, as in this, there were men 
in the Congress of tlie United States fighting the further expansion 
of our country, and good men at that— wise men and patriotic men. 
Even so good and great a man as Daniel Webster opposed the ac- 
qiiisition of Texas. Henry Clay opposed the acquisition of Texas, 
although in 1819, when in acquiring Florida we sold Texas to 
Spain, and sold many Americans in the bargain, Henry Clay then 
protested against the sale, declaring that Texas was worth five 
times what Florida was worth. In 1819 Andrew Jackson favored 
the transfer of Texas to Spain. President Monroe himself said 
that our claim to Texas was as good as our claim to New Orleans, 
and President Tyler, in his message to Congress in reference to the 
annexation of Texas, said that we were then reclaiming a terri- 
tory that we had once transferred to another country. 

By the annexation of Texas we acquired 377,000 square miles of 
territory. 

Mr. GAINES. Before the gentleman leaves the question of the 
Louisiana purchase, I hope he will explain that in the treaty mak- 
ing that purchase it was expressly provided that the Territory 
should be made into States of the Union; and that is not even 
contemplated, as I understand, either by the treaty with Spain or 
4039 



bv Congress with refcronce to the IMiilippine Islands or Pm-rto 
Ru-o. 

Mr. (JinSON, I will liriiik' all tliat in at tlio rif,'ht place. 

^Mr. TICKRY. I would like to ask the ^'ciitlcnian a question 
rij,'ht thi'rt'. Doo.s he think thoro is any analo^jjy 

Mr. (tIBSON. 1 will come to the analogies after awhile. I 
hope gpiitlcnion will wait. 

Mr. THHRY. I should like to have tho gentleman now 

Mr. GIBSON. No; it docs not fit in with my argument. I am 
going to show that the ol).iections that were made to the acqui.si- 
tion of Louisiana, and the objections that were made to the acijui- 
sition of Texas and to the acquisition of California were exactly 
the same objectiiius that yon gentlemen are now urging in thi.s 
House against any further extension of American sovereignty — 
the very same. But do not be so tender under the saddle. 

Mr. TERRY. We are not at all tender; but you must be a little 
tender when you will not permit any interruption at this point. 

Mr. GIB.SUN. It will be nointerruption wheni get totheright 
place; but gentlemen must not get too touchy. I have hardly 
made any motion yet in the direction in which you want me to 
proceed. I know that a horse with a tender back will flinch as 
soon as you put in an appearance. But the time for gentlemen on 
the other side to flinch will come a little later. 

^VLIFORXIA OUR SIXTH EXPANSION. 

Our sixth acquisition was in 184!-!, when we acquired California. 
By that acquisition wo obtained .V2:!,i)iK) square miles of territory, 
for which we paid thousands of lives and hundreds of millions of 
treasure in i)rosecuting the war and .$10,000,000 in hard cash to boot. 

Our seventh ac(iuisition was Arizona, made in 1S5:5, whereby we 
acrjuired 40,0.10 .scjuaro miles of country, sometimes called "the 
Gadsden purchase;' and for that Gadsden purchase we paid 
$10.00), 000. Anybody who has ever traveled over the territory 
embraced within that Gadsden purchase knows that it will not 
sprout any sort of seed that has ever been discovered, unless it bo 
seed ticks, or some other vermin. [Laughter.] Prairie dogs, go- 
phers, coyotes, and rattlesnakes are about the only sort of animals 
yon will find in the Gadsden pui'chase, for which we paid .$1 0,000,<i( iQ 
in IS'yS; but that was all right, because it was done lander a Dem- 
ocratic Administration. 

Our eighth acquisition was Alaska, acquired in 1867. containing 
577.000 square miles of territor.v. for which we paid !«i7,",*00,000. 

Our ninth acquisition was the Hawaiian Islands, acquired in 
1898, in the same manner that we acquired Texas. The parallel 
between the two cases is absolutely perfect. They are on all fours 
and fit at every corner. In the ca.se of Hawaii, as in the case of 
Texas, the Senate of the L'nited States failed to ratify the treaty, 
and the annexation was finally brought about by joint resolution 
passed by a majority of each House of Congress. 

The goveniment of Texas was revolutionary, just as the govern- 
ment of the Hawaiian Lslands was revolutionary, when the aciiuisi- 
tion by joint resolution was consummated. By the Hawaiian ac- 
quisition we obtained 0,000 square miles of territory. 

PUEllTO UICO AND THE PHILIPPIXES OUR TENTH EXPAXSInX. 

Our tenth acquisition was Puerto Rico and the Philippine 
Islands, acquired as a result of the treaty with Spain ratified last 

4(W> 



6 

year; and by that treaty we acquired 120,000 square miles of ter- 
ritory, thus bringing up the area of our national domain from 
358,000 square miles to 8,789,000 square miles— all as the result of 
expansion; for, be it remembered, when our ancestors first landed 
on the shores of North America they did not own one foot of 
the soil. 

And I will say here now, Mr. Chairman, that expansion is a 
part of our national life. We are expansionists by destiny and 
by heredity. The progressive men, the aggressive men, the enter- 
IDrising men, the adventiirous men of every generation have 
moved still farther west. From the Atlantic coast they moved 
westward until they reached the Blue Ridge Mountains; then they 
crossed the Blue Ridge and went westward until they struck the 
Allegheny Mountains. The most adventurous of that generation 
crossed those mountains, going down into Tennessee and Ken- 
tucky and western Virginia and western Pennsylvania and Ohio; 
and the most adventurous inhabitants of those States continued 
to go west, until the Mississippi River was reached, ever follow- 
ing the setting sun, as though anxious to discover his resting 
place. 

When the banks of the Mississippi River were reached, many of 
the people of the United States believed that we had reached our 
' ' Ultima Thide." They believed that the Mississippi was the ' ' Ne 
Plus C7Zfra" of American territory; and that if we went farther 
we would travel the rugged road of danger? an* in both branches 
of Congress at that time, both in the House of Representatives 
and in the Senate of the United States, there were men who rose 
up and protested that the acquisition of the territory west of the 
Mississippi River would resiilt in the ultimate destruction of the 
country, and was so violative of the provisions of our Constitution 
that it amounted in itself to a dissolution or abandonment of the 
Union, and relegated all of the original States to their rights prior 
to the formation of the Constitution. 

PREDICTIONS OF EVIL AND DANGER. 

But gloomy forebodings and warnings of danger and predic- 
tions of disaster failed to deter the adventurous American expan- 
sionists. The heredity of expansion was in their heels and in their 
hands and in their heads and in their hearts, and no danger could 
alarm them, no difficulty deter them, no obstacle stop them. 
The sons of the pioneers of Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, and 
the great West moved down into Texas, rebelled against Mexico, 
raised the banner of independence, and finally annexed Texas to 
the United States. This brought on a war with Mexico, during 
which we acquired Upper California, and thereby more firmly 
planted ourselves on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. 

Then it did seem that we had indeed reached the Ultima Thule 
of territorial expansion; that here on the shores of the mighty 
Pacific we were to set up the pillars of the god Terminus, on 
which should be inscribed the words " Ne Plus Ultra;" that there 
was no further beyond for the sovereignty of the great American 
Republic. But those who adopted that view, like those who fixed 
bounds for us previously, found themselves mistaken. 

Mr. Chairman, when Columbus discovered America all the 
English-speaking people on the face of the earth numbered only 
4,000,000 and occupied but 51,000 square miles of territory. How 
many are we to-day? One hundred and forty-three million. And 
we possess 15,000,000 square miles of territory, two-fifths of the 

4029 



whole h;i1)it!il)le globo. and wo are still cxp.UKlin^l This iiii;<hty 
and irresistible wave ot expansion, that started i'voni the Lialtic 
Sea about two thousand years a.t;o, is sprt-adinj^. over sjireading, 
and will eontinue to sjjread until it rolls over every sea and washed 
every shore in all thi> world. The progress of our rate can never 
he stayed. You can never fix its bounds. No one continent can 
suffice it. No one ocean can satisfy it. No one zone can contain 
it. No one heniisphero can circumscribe its powers and its activ- 
ities. 

?:Xl»AXSIOX OIK DKSTIXV. 

The world is its arena, and the limits of the world its only 
boundary. Its destiny is to dominate the entire face of the earth, 
includiui; all races aiid all countries and all lands and all con- 
tinents, in all latitudes, under every .sky; and wherever we ko we 
carry blessing's in our hands: from the folds of our llai; are shaken 
out the bright rays of liberty, and out of our mouths will proceed 
the gospel of a higher civilization, a better religion, and a grander 
life. 

Hero tho froo sjiirit of ni.iiikiiid, at lensrtli. 
Throws its hist fetters olT; iiiid wlio sliall place 
A limit to the ^riiiiit's unchainctl streiii^th. 
Or curb his swiftness in the forward race? 

I am one of those, Mr. Chairman, who believe that the race wo 
belong to— I care not whether you call it German or whether you 
call it Saxon or Anglo-Saxon, or whether you call it American— 
I believe that the race we belong to, the race that came from 
the Baltic Sea— call it Norwegian, Swede, or Dane if you will — 
that Viking race that came from the Baltic Sea, one branch of it 
coming toward the west and the north, peopling Denmark, Swe- 
den, Norway, Holland. France, and the British Islands, and 
thence across the Atlantic to America: and the other branch 
going into Russia, establishing itself in that country and giving 
to it its name and its inspiration— yes, these same Northmen, who, 
finding the Baltic Sea open to the wect, sailed thence across two 
oce.ins around the world, finding this same sea closed on the east 
by the greatest unbroken stretch of land in the Old World, with 
a sublime faith in their destiny and the universality of their em- 
pire, boldly took possession of its shores and undertook the gigan- 
tic and seemingly impossible task of reaching the sea by a con- 
quering march of C.OOO miles across two continents, and now 
behold them on the shores of China, launching their ships on the 
Pacific Ocean and saluting their American kinsmen at the other 
end of the earth! 

THE Hl'SSIAV EXTAXSIOXISTS nVn KIXSMKX. 

The Northmen, ordinarily under the name of Varangians, not 
only gave Russia her name but her start as the ruling power in 
northeastern Europe and northern Asia: and when Russia finally 
reached the Pacific through the Gulf ofPechili, one of her Varan- 
gian dreams was realized, and once more the Russian sea kings 
could launch their ships upon the unbounded sea. 

In the (xulf of Pechili the descendants of those Northmen who 
.sailed west out of the Baltic met the descendants of their brother 
Northmen who marched eastward from the Baltic, and when they 
shook hands their dominion girdled tho globe and their conquest 
of the whole earth was assured. I say, Mr. Chairman. I am one 
of those who believe that this race can never bo confined to any 
quarters, however large. It despises barriers, ignores limits, antl 
rebels against boundaries. For it there is no Rubicon, no Pillars 
4ftJ9 



""■ ^ of Hercules, no impassable Alps, no nnnavigable sea, no impene- 
trable desert, no intolerable climate. 

,_,_^ This race, Mr. Chairman, born of whtit divine parents we know 

> • not, cradled in the Baltic Sea thousands of years ago, baptized 

„ r with what baptism of glory we know not, the gospel of human 

f\ 't liberty breathed into its nostrils as the breath of its life, and the 

. '■ <6 badge of empire imprinted on its brow, it went forth commis- 
sioned to subdue and conquer the earth and to have dominion 

-^ over every living thing. 

^ j>^ You may as well try to dam the floods of the Mississippi with 

„ ', ropes of sand, or to stay the mighty currents of the ocean with 

^ bags of chips, or stop the planets in their courses with cobwebs, 

■ '^.y as "to try to stay the irresistible and all-conquering progress of 

_ that spirit of national expansion that has animated our race for 

_ S. the last thousand j-ears. Like the " eternal spirit of the chainless 

5- mind," no dungeon can confine it, no whip can subdue it, no 

I O difficulty can discourage it, no obstacle can stay it, no power can 

'^ ___^ conquer it, for God is Its father and victory is its destiny. It is 

^ ~~P^ __^ themaster heredity of our master race. 

/ OUR RACE HAS A MISSION. 

^ Mr. Chairman, our race has a mission. No devout student of 

,^\ , history can misread it. We are the preachers of a new evangel 

y I ■ — of government: we are the missionaries of a new and higher civ- 

^ ! _^ ilization; we are the apostles of the New World to the Old, and a 

part of our mission is to evangelize Asia and the Islands of the 

Sea. 
The Genius of this New World, standing like an Archangel on 

the highest mountain on our Pacific coast, might well use that 

grand poetic and prophetic chant of Walt Whitman, uttered 

many years ago: 

I c'lant the world on my Western sea. 

I c lant copious the islands beyond, thick as stars in the sky, 

I chant the new cmpii'e grander than any before, as in a vision it comes to me. 

I chant America, the mistress, I chant a greater supremacy, 

1 chant projected a thousand blooming cities yet in time on those groups of 
sea islands. 

My sail ships and steamships threading the archipelagoes, 

My Stars and Stripes fluttering in the wind. 

Commerce opening, the sleep of ages having done its work, races reborn, re- 
fresh'd. 

Lives, works resumed— the object I know not— but the old, the Asiatic re- 
newed as it must be, 

Commencing from this day surrounded by the world. 

The sign is reversing, the orb is inclosed. 
The ring is circled, the journey is done. 

Mr. Chairman, the Philippine Islands have been lawfully and 
constitutionally acquired. The President made the treaty of 
acquisition, the Senate ratified it, and the House of Representatives 
voted the money to pay for them, and voted 65,000 soldiers to 
hold them. 

And yet some complain of the President because he is obeying 
the orders of Congress and the mandates of the Constitution. If 
the President were to surrender these islands or pause a mo- 
ment in the enforcement of our sovereignty thei-e, he would be 
guilty of an impeachable offense and would violate his oath of 
office. 

OUR POLICY IN THE PHILIPPINES. 

In prosecuting the war in the Philippines the Preisident is not 
only doing his duty under the Constitution and laws of the land, 
402J 



9 

bnt ho is doing whrte a large majority of this Congress and a largo 
uinjority of the American people desire him to do; and in his every 
act has shown himself not only a great President and patriotic 
American but a magnificent specimen of tho true type of that 
grand race to which we belong. 

My individual views on the Philipi)ine(iuostion are contained io 
these resolutions, which I introduced in this liouse December 19, 

Concurrent resohitions relative to the vJews and purposes of Confess as to 
the Philippine Islands. 

Resohvd by ihe House of RrprcKmtalivts (the Senate connirring). That tho 
Philipnino Islands are, and over sinco tho ratifli-ation of tho late treaty with 
Spain liavo been, tlio exclusive ami absolute i)roi)erty of tlio Unitotl Stntesi; 
and that it is, and ever sinco said ratificiatinn nas Leon, tlio i-()nstituti<)nal 
duty (if tho President to maintain tho bovereij,'nty of tho L'uited .State's over 
said islands and to effectually suppress all insurrections against .said sov- 
erciyuty and other disturUinces of tho public peace in said islands; and that 
we lieri.-by ratify and approve all that tho President has done to maintain 
our authority and restore order in said islands. 

Skc. 2. That as soon ;us the supremacy of tho United States shall have lieen 
fully established in said islands C'ontrress will provide for thi'in such a forna 
of novernment as will best secure protection to jjorson and property and 
develoji tho arts of peace, pivins to tho inhabitants as lartfo a sharo intheir 
government as will bo promotive of their hapitiness and welfare and cou- 
sisteut with the sovereijmty of tho United States 

Mr. Chairman, I want now to come a little nearer to the present 
time. I want to show the character of the objections that are in- 
terposed against any further growth of our countiy, and espe- 
cially against the acquisition of the Philippine Islands. 

One objection is that they are too far off. They say they are 
ll.OUO miles away, measured from one side of the country, and 
7,000 from another side of the country. In these days, Mr. Chair- 
man, distance is not so often a question. If a man is going from 
here to b'an Francisco, he does not inquire how far it is. He wants 
to know how long it will take him to go, and what is the price of 
a railroad ticket: and that is all. We have passed the day when 
distance has to be counted, 

PIITLirPIXES NOT TOO FAR AWAY. 

The civilized man of the present is omnipresent and almost 
omnipotent. Too far, they say! Why, you can go from tho 
United States, from San Francisco to the Philippine Islands and 
come back on a troop ship in two months. And yet when we 
acquired California it took six months to go there*, and it was 
like going through a hell to get there. [Laughter.] You had 
to cross ~\0U0 miles of country uninhabited by anybody ex- 
cept wild Indians, buffaloes, prairie dogs, gophers, and coyotes. 
You had to pack your water supply oftentimes for a hundred 
miles, and it is estimated that one out of every seven persons who 
undertook the trip perished by the roadside. I have been over tho 
overland route to California, "and on the right and on the left are 
found the graves of the thousands of men, women, and children 
who lost their lives in that awful overland journey of six months. 

Now, when you go to tho Philippines, all that you have to do is 
to get on a ship and touch a button, and the balance is done for 
you. You can play cards, you can read books and newspapers, 
you can write sermons or political speeches, you can dance or i)ray 
or sing, you can attend dinner parties, you can do everything that 
you can do in your office or in your home on land; and all this 
wliile the sliip is steaming away across the ocean at the rate of 1.5 
miles an hour, and you are put down at Manila without having 



10 

raised a drop of sweat, without having given a thought to the 
journey, witliout having lost a meal or an liour's sleep. And yet 
in this day some of us Americans have become so eifemmate, 
either through wealth, or through excess of civilization, or through 
the refinements of political or theological polemics, that they dread 
boarding a ship to go to the Philippine Islands, when their fore- 
fathers girded up their loins, saddled their horses, packed their 
mules, yoked their oxen to their own wagons, and took their wives 
and their children, traveling on foot 3,000 miles across plains and 
deserts, across mountains and valleys, across creeks and rivers, 
among Indians and wild beasts, in order to reach California; and 
they were not afraid. 

JOSHUA AS A LEADER OF EXPANSION. 

To hear some of these men talk, I am reminded of what took 
place when the Children of Israel approached the promised land. 
They sent spies to look out the country, timid men, the Demo- 
crats of those days, and when these spies returned, what did they 
say? They s?dd, "Oh, it is an awful country. The land de- 
voureth the inhabitants, and the children of the giants are out 
there, the Anakim and the Zamzummim, and we, in their sight, 
are but as grasshoppers." That was the report of a Democratic 
investigating committee a thousand years before the Saviour was 
born, and they are still bringing in the very same reports. But 
notwithstanding all that, Joshua, at the head of the army of 
Israel, crossed the Jordan and occupied the country. 

Mr. Chairman, I will just read you a summary of the objections 
raised against the acquisition of Louisiana and California. These 
objections were just as vociferously urged in their day as are the 
objections to the acquisition of the Philippines in our day. 

OBJECTIONS TO THE ACQUISITION OF LOUISIANA. 

First. Territory too large ever to be peopled. 

Second. Population too large and too incongruous ever to be- 
come homogeneous with people of the original thirteen States, 

Third. Impossibility of ever making the inhabitants fit for 
American citizenship. 

Fourth. Territory too remote from the Atlantic coast ever to be 
anything more than a wild land roamed over by wild beasts and 
wilder men. 

Fifth. If ever peopled like the Eastern States, it will eventually 
dominate these States and overwhelm their civilization and laws, 
and perhaps their religion and liberty. 

Sixth. The United States have no constitutional power to ac- 
quire the territory. 

Seventh. Parts of the territory are so remote as to be inaccessi- 
ble to the influences of civilization, commerce, or religion. 

Eighth. The expense of governing it will pauperize the people 
of the East, and no compensations therefor. 

Ninth. Governing it will cost the lives of thousands of our sons, 
in battle or by disease. 

Tenth. If ever peopled by white men. they will be as wild and 
lawless as the Indians and as unfit for civilization and citizenship, 
and they will be a menace to the Eastern States, and may in time 
subjugate them, as the Goths, Vandals, and other barbarians sub 
jugated Rome. 

OBJECTIONS TO ACQUISITION OF CALIFORNIA. 

First. Too far away; can not be reached in less than six months 
either by land or sea. 
4U:."J 



11 

Second. Population dissimilar in race, customs, traditions, laws, 
and rolif^inn. 

Third. Impossibility of di-ff-nding it against a foreign foe. 

Fourth. It will shift the balance of territorial power from tho 
Atlantic coast to the Pacitic. 

I'^iltli. It will introduce into onr ponnlation a race of mongrels, 
unfit for our civilization, religion, or liberties. 

.Sixth. The land is mainly composed of deserts and mountain<?, 
the deserts blasted by unbearable heat and the mountains covered 
by unmelt^ible snow. 

Yes, there were kickers, too, in those days, but they kicked 
against tho pricks and were forced forward in .spite of themselves. 
In vain they protested: in vain they predicted evil: in vain they 
prated about tho Constitution; in vain they abused Jefferson as 
to Louisiana, and Polk as to California; in vain they swore they 
would never submit, Tho great mass of the American people, 
obeying the fundamental law of their heredity, went on in tlieir 
acquisitions, with sublime coufidenco in their destiny, and now 
behold the glorious results! 

I hate to say it, but the American who belittles expansion be- 
littles not only the mighty statesmen and grand heroes who have 
expanded our country from tho Gulf to the Lakes and from the 
Allegheny Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, but he belittles his 
own self and takes from his own head that glorious crown of 
citizenship which makes an American the foremost man in all the 
world. 

THE TRUE AMERICAN SPIRIT. 

How different the spirit now animating some men who think 
they are good Americans from that mighty spirit of patriotism 
that blazed up into one universal conflagration two years ago. 

In the Spanish war the world beheld a marvelous spectacle. It 
saw the North and the South, the East and the West rally around 
the banner of the Re])ublic as the great object of their love and 
loyalty. Fitzhugh Lee and Joseph Wheeler, mighty men who 
had battled for an independent Confederacy from ISGI to Ibtw. 
now fought side by side with the sous of Grant and Logan, and 
in the Congress of the United States men who served in the Con- 
federate army joined the men who served in the Federal Army in 
voting men, money, and ships to uphold the cau.se of a reunited 
country. 

There is an inspiring lesson in the very names of the ships 
which wrought the ruin of Spain's navies. At Manila the Oli/iu- 
pia spoke for the great Northwest, and the Bosti»i for the great 
Northeast. The Concord spoke for the old North and the JUtUi- 
more and Raleigh spoke for the^ew South, while at Santiago the 
Orrqon spoke for the Pacific States, tho Tr.ms for tho Gulf, tho 
nrooJdi/n for our Atlantic coast, and the loira for the great Mis- 
sissippi Valley. Every section and party of our mighty many-in- 
one thundered and lightened in the cause of liberty, and rained 
fire and iron hail upon freedom's enemies. And the descendants 
of the old Norsemen, the sons of the Vikings, were tho men behind 
our guns. 

They have another objection to tho acquisition of the Philii>- 
pine Islands. They sav the people have not cousent.-d, and that 
we ought to get the consent of the people. Mr. Chairman, when 
did we ever get the cons.nt of any people except those of the State 
of Texas? Never. When we drove the French out of the coun- 
4(M) 



12 

try between the Allegheny Mountains and the Mississippi River 
did we get the consent of the inhabitants? No, sir. 

CONSENT OF THE PEOPLE. 

When we bouglit Louisiana did we get the consent of the in- 
habitants? Not "at all. The inhabitants were opposed to it to a 
man: and when the French flag was pulled down at New Orleans 
thousands of people cried like children to see the flag of their 
country hauled down upon the soil of North America forever. 
Who was President then? Thomas Jefferson, the apostle and high 
priest of Democracy. Did he say anything about the consent of 
the governed? No. He bought the people of Louisiana along 
with the soil, and as appendages or appurtenances to the soil; and 
that was Thomas Jefferson! And after we acquired Louisiana 
what did Thomas Jefferson do? He sent a military governor there, 
backed by United States bayonets, and gave that military gov- 
ernor the right to pass just such laws as he saw fit and to execute 
them at the point of the bayonet; and that was Thomas Jefferson! 

No consent of the inhabitants there. When we acquired 
Florida was there any consent of the inhabitants? No; President 
Monroe sent Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee, down to Florida, 
and Andrew Jackson wrote upon a sheet of white paper just such 
laws as he wanted to prevail in the district of Florida, and en- 
forced them by the United States Army. He was at the same 
time military commander, governor, legislature, judge, and 
sheriff, all combined: and he was another of the gods of the Democ- 
racy, and a great god he was. too. I am willing to sign and sub- 
scribe an affidavit to that effect. If Andrew Jackson were here 
today he would be standing side by side with his illustrious suc- 
cessor, William McKinley, in enforcing the sovereignty of the 
United States over all justly and constitutionally acquired terri- 
tory. [Applause.] That is where Andrew Jackson would be, 
and where Thomas Jefferson would be, too, or else they would 
have to go back on the precedents they furnished us in the cases of 
Louisiana and Florida. 

No, we have never asked for the consent of any people. Did we 
get the consent of the Mexicans when we annexed Upper Cali- 
fornia? No. Did we get the consent of the Spaniards when we 
annexed Florida? No. Well, now, I want some man to tell me 
whether the French and the Mexicans and the Spaniards are not 
as good people to consult as are the Tagalos and the Visayans in 
the Philippine Islands. Are the French to be written down as 
infants and incapalile of giving consent? Ai'e the Spaniards to 
be written down as infants and incapable of giving consent? Are 
the Mexicans of Upper California to be written down as infants 
and incapable of giving consent? No. 

EXPANSION NOW BECOME A POLITICAL QUESTION. 

The question of consent has never been raised in any of our 
acquisitions until this late day; and I want to say this— some on 
my side here may not agree with me in it, but I believe it to be 
true — I believe that if William Jennings Bryan had been elected 
President of the United States instead of' William McKinley, 
the Spanish war would have come on all the same; that Dewey 
would have sunk the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay all the same; 
that the United States would have acquired the Philippine Islands 
all the same; that William Jennings Bryan, by the aid of an 
American army, would to-day be putting down Aguinaldo all the 
same, and that every man on the Democratic side of this House 

40-.i9 



13 

would l>e shontinj? '• Hnrrahl ' and '"Amonl " while some mon on 
this .sido vi tlie Himso would be kicking. Now, put tlmt in your 
pipi's and snioko it. | Laupfhter. | 

This oiiposition to tho acquisition ot the Philippino Islands is 
political, and political onl}'. So far as I am concerned, 1 wclconio 
tho issue, because no party yet has ever been able to stand up 
against tho great wave of AniericaTi e.\i)ansioii, and never will 
until the time comes to write our cpitapli. and not xmtil then; 
and that day may God in his wisdom and mercy put off forever. 

Some say that we may have the right to buy land, but wo have 
no right to buy people; and they sarcastically say that if wo do 
buy people, they ought to bo worth more than $:2 a head. 

When we bought Louisiana, some no doubt said, ".$15,000,000 
for l.")il,000 rdskins, a hundred dollars jier skin!" But if any- 
body dill say it, no man has wasted paper in preserving his name; 
and if he lias any descendants (which 1 doubt, as cowards have 
no children), they are not bragging about it. 

When we bought Florida did we not buy Seminoles, alligators, 
Dull frogs. aTul mosquitoes? And the shallow-brained wits no 
doubt claimed that there was nothing to bo admired about the 
territory but its name. 

When we bought California, Arizona. Utah, Nevada, and New 
Moxioo. no doubt the disgruntled politicians of IslS incjuired why 
we paid §1."), 000. 00!) for territories we had already conciuered by 
the sword; and others wanted to know what nse we had for terri- 
tories beyond the Rocky Mountains, when we already had a mil- 
lion square miles of territory this side of tho Rockies, inhabited 
by nothing but Indians, buffaloes, and prairie dogs. 

And when a Democratic President bargained away Texas to 
Spain, did he not bargain away the Americans then living in Texas 
without their consent? 

KILII'INOS NO BETTER TnAX OUK IXDIANS. 

Others, again, say: "Are not the Filipinos as much entitleil to 
their liberty as we are to ours?" Force rules the world, and all 
our rights are based on force, which is only another name for law. 
We drove out the Indians and robbed them of their lands, just 
as these Indians in their ttim drove out a race that lived here be- 
fore them: and thus race drives out race, one religion supersedes 
another, one barbarism supplants another, one civilization gives 
way to another, as a rule the better always superseding the worse. 

Did not Massachusetts destroy her Indians and murder King 
Philip, who was an Aguinaldo in his day? Did not Virginia ex- 
terminate the Potomac Indians? Did not North and South Caro- 
lina and Georgia drive out their Indians? Did not we Tennes- 
seans expel the Cherokees? Is Aguinaldo any nobler than was 
Pontiac? or Logan? or Tecumseh? or Osceola? or Black Hawk? or 
Captain Jack? or Sitting Bull? or Geronimo? 

No: it is safe to say that these great Indian chieftains were one 
and all the .superiors of Aguinaldo. and the red warriors of their 
tribes were far braver and greater lovers of liberty than the 
yellow-faced soldiers of the Philippines: and are we not, to-day, 
governing 200,000 Indians right here in the United States without 
their consent? 

Another objection that is urged is that we have no use for tho 
country. No use for it! That was said in 1T.">:!, when we started 
to acquire Mis.si.ssippi, Alabama. Tennt-sseo. Kentucky, West Vir- 
ginia, western Pennsylvania. Ohio. Indiana. Illinois. Michigan, 
and Wisconsin. Why, they said, " We have plenty of country over 
1029 



14 

here on this side of the Allegheny Mountains. England, that is 
nearly two thousand years old, is not thickly populated, and she 
has only 51,000 square miles, while we have got nearly 400.000 
square miles, and we have enough land on the east of the Alle- 
gheny Mountains to last us ten thousand years. Why, then, 
send our young men oil: across the AUeghenies to fight the French 
and Indians and bring on war and cause blood to be shed and 
money to be spent?" 

But the spirit of expansion, the spirit of the Vikings, was in 
their hardy hearts, and we went forward. Then, when Thomas 
Jefferson acquired Louisiana, they said we did not need it. had no 
use for it, none whatever. So, when we acqviired Texas, Daniel 
Webster said we had all the country we needed. All the Whigs 
all over the country said we had no use for it. 
Mr. ROBB. May I ask the gentleman a question? 
Mr. GIBSON. Certainly. 

Mr. ROBB. I would like to ask the gentleman if he believes 
we are authorized by justice and morals to invade a country and 
take it because we have a use for it? 

Mr. GrIBSON. My friend and brother, nations do not go to 
Sunday school. If they did, you would to-day surrender all the 
property you have to th* Indians— every dollar's worth of it— for, 
from your standpoint, it has all been the result of robbery. 

Mr. ROBB. I have another question I would like to ask the 
gentleman. I would like to ask if he thinks that England is jus- 
tified in the course she is now pursuing down in South Africa 
toward the Boers? 

Mr. GIBSON. Ask me some question about Siberia. [Laugh- 
ter. ] It would have just as much to do with my argument. Such 
a question is an admission that the gentleman has nothing sub- 
stfintial to sa}'. 

Mr. ROBBI I have another question 

The CHAIRMAN. Does the gentleman from Tennessee yield 
further to the gentleman from Missouri? 

Mr. GIBSON. Not for such irrelevant questions. No use for 
the country, no use for Texas, no use for Louisiana, no use for 
Florida, no use for California, no use for Oregon, no use for Alaska! 
Why, a member of Congress arose on the floor of this House and 
offered a resolution to give $7,200,000 to any nation on earth that 
would take Alaska off our hands. 

Mr. GAINES. And yet you did not think that they ought to 
have a jury up there. 

Mr. GIBSON. I see that I am stirring up the animals, although 
I have tried to keep very quiet. [Laughter.] No use for the 
territory! I am one of those men who believe in Providence; I 
do not know whether gentlemen on the other side believe in it or 
not. and I do not know whether everybody on this side believes 
in it or not, but I believe in it. I can not understand history any 
other way. I believe there is a Providence in this matter. Mr. 
Chairman, what would have been the condition of North America 
if the English, the Irish, the Germans, the Danes, the Swedes, 
and the Norwegians had not come over here? 
Mr. RoBB rose. 

The CHAIRMAN. Does the gentleman from Tennessee yield 
to the gentleman from Missouri? 

STATESMANSHIP LOOKS AHEAD ONE HUNDRED YEARS. 

Mr. GIBSON. No. sir; unless my time is extended, I can not 
yield. What would be the condition of North America? It would 

4029 



16 

be ono vast wilderness inhabited only 1)}' heathen Indians— not a 
chnrcli, not a Sunday school, not alJiltk-. not a civilized man. 
Now see it— tlio Klory of the whole earth, the admiration of all 
nations, and the nearest realization of a heaven on eartlj yet 
achieved by the children of men. Of course it has cost blood and 
cost treasure; it has caused inju-stico in individual cases; but wo 
do not look at what is today or at what will bo to-morrow. 
Statesmen look forward a hundred years, and looking forward a 
hundred years, when the Philipjiines'will bo like a new Jerusalem, 
come down from the skies, ^doritied by Christianity, ennobled by 
civilization, purified by the principles of lil)erty, and livin;,' hap- 
pily under a rejiublican i^overnment. then wliat will liecome of the 
men who ri.se in this (-'on^ress and want to know whether it is 
riij;ht to so and take possession of the Philipitine Islands without 
the con.sent of the people there, just as no doubt four hundred 
years ago there were men in England who said it was wrong to 
come here and dispossess the red men? 

No, Mr. Chairman, wo aro moving forward and moving on- 
ward, this great army of American civilization and American 
progression. Undi-r the starry banner of Columbia there can bo 
no such thing as legalized oppression, no more than tliere can bo 
darkness under the light of the midday sun or iui^uity in the 
courts of heaven. [ Ajjplause.] 

APPENDIX. 
Objections to the av(iHisitinn of Louisiana on the part of members of Congress. 

Tbe (icquisition of Louisiana, in 1803, was vigorously opposed in Congress. 
Senator Pickering, of Ma.ssachuset^s, said: 

"It is declared in the third article (of the treaty] that the inhabitants of 
the ceded territory shall be iiicori)arated in the Union of the United .States. 
But neither the President and Senate, nor the President and Congress, aro 
cnmjietent to such an act of incorporation. I believe the assent of each in- 
dividual .State to be necessary for the admission of a foreign country as an 
associate in the Union." 

Senator White, of Delaware, said: 

"But as to Louisiana, this new, immense, unbounded world, if it should 
ever lie incorjiorated into tiie Union, of which I have no idea, it can only be 
done by amending the Constitution. I believe it will be the greatest curso 
that could at present befall us. It may bo productive of innumerable evil^, 
and especially of one that I fear ever to look upon. * • * Thus our citi- 
zens will l>e removed to the immense distance of two or three thousand miles 
from the cai>ital of the Union, where they will scarcely ever feel the rays of 
the General Government." 

Representative (Triswold. of Connecticut, said: 

"The vast and unmanageable extent which tlie accession of Louisiana will 
give the United States, the onseiinent dispersion of our population and the 
destruction of that balamo which it is so important to maintain Ijetween the 
Eastern and Western States, threatens, at no very distant day, the subver- 
sion of our Union." 

Representative Griffin, of Virginia, said: 

" I fear the effect of the vast e.\tent of our empire: I fear tbe effects of the 
increa-sed value of labor, the decrease in the value of lands, and the influence 
of climate upon our citizens who .should migrate thith«'r. I fear (though 
this land is rei)re.sented as flowing with milk and lionev i t hat this Eden of the 
New World will ])rove a cemetery lor the bodies of our citizen.s." 

W'hen, in isil, the bill for the admis-sion of the jiresent Stateof Louisiana— 
the mere soutliern corner of the Louisiana ptirclia.se— came before the House 
of Representatives, .losiah Quincy, of :\I;i.s.sacliusetts, said: 

"To mo it appears that it j the 'pa.ssago of the bill | would justify a revolu- 
tion in this country, and that in no great length i>f time it mav jiroduce it. 

"I am compelled to declare it as my deliberate opinion that if this bill 
passes the bonds of the Union aro virtually dissolved. 

"This Constitution never was and never can be strained to lap over all 
the wildernes."! of the West without essentially affecting Ixjth the rightsrtnd 
the convenience of its real iiroitrietors. It was never intended to form a cov- 
ering for the inhabitants of the Mis.souri and the Red River country; and 
whenever it is attempted to be stretched over it will rend asunder. 
4020 



16 

" W liy, sir, I liave already heard of six States, and some say there will be, 
at no great distance of time, more. I have also heard that the mouth of the 
Ohio will be far to the east of the center of the contemplated empire. * * * 

" I oppose this bill from no animosity to the people of New Orleans, but 
from the deep conviction that it contains a principle incompatible with the 
liberties and safety of my country. * * * This bill, if it passes, is a death 
blow to the Constitution. It may afterwards linger, but, lingering, its fate 
will at no very distant period be consiimmated." 

OB.JECTIONS TO OREGON. 

When the bill for the settlement of Oregon Territory came before the Sen- 
ate in 1843, Senator McDuffle, of South Carolina, said: 

" Why, sir, of what use will this be for agricultural purposes? I would not 
for that purpose give a pinch of snufT for the wholeTerritory. I wish to God 
we did not own it. I wish it was an impassable barrier to secure us against 
the intrusion of others. This is the character of that country. Who are we 
to send there? Do you think your honest farmers in Pennsylvania, New 
York, or even Ohio or Missouri will abandon their farms to go upon any such 
enterprise? God forbid!" 

In opposition to the same measure, Senator Dickerson, of New Jersey, 
said: . . , 

"We have not adopted a system of colonization, and it is hoped we never 
shall. Oregon can never be one of the United States. If we extend our laws 
to it we must consider it as a colony. * * * Is the Territory of Oregon 
ever to becomea State, a member of the Union? 

'•Never. 

"The Union is already too extensive." 
4039 

o 



